The water in the Kona port was too shallow for our ship to dock next to a pier, so they dropped the lifeboats and shuttled passangers back and forth to the shore the whole day. We woke up early enough to catch one of the first lifeboats. The first rental car they gave us at Kamehameha hotel didn't want to power up our Garmin - we lost some time going back and changing it. Shortly after we were driving on route 190 toward Kohala mountains.

There wasn't much to admire on the route except for Mount Kea. After a short stop in Waimea we started driving up on Kohala Mountains. The wind was blowing with such a power that my ears hurt everytime I got out of the car. This was one of the reasons why we stopped only a couple of times along route 250. Depending on the relative position of the car, it was extremely difficult to either open or close the door. I never expected to see cacti in Hawaii, but they started showing up along the way and they were literally waving at us.

once we turned right on 270 the wind didn't bother us for a while. It was around 11 when we reached the Pololu Valley lookout. Initially we hesitated hiking down because of the rain - once we even considered returning while on the trail. The scenery was considerably nicer from the trail once the coastline became more visible. We made it down to the beach and savored the ephemeral joy of writing our names on the black sand. Later I realized that the trail is way longer - but we didn't have enough time for all of it anyway. Hiking up seemed faster (it took us about 20 minutes), most likely because we stopped less to admire the scenery. On the way back to Hawi we stopped at Keokea Beach Park to have lunch.

The wind picked up and followed us around when we got back on the west coast. We stopped at a couple of historic sites, but they were disappointing. Lapakahi State Historical Park hosts the ruins of an old village. Puukohola_Heiau is a religious site, in which the main "building" was closed to tourists - only hawaiians can go inside for religious ceremonies. I don't mean to hurt any feelings, but I personally didn't get a kick by looking from distance at some stones arranged on top of eachother.

We wanted to see Kauna`oa Beach, but the parking lot was full, so we went to Hapuna Beach instead. The wind was picking up sand to slam it into everything. The exposed skin was hurting - I don't really understand how the people could sit on the beach that day. We kept driving south through a field of black lava. For miles on both sides of the highway visitors left messages written with white coral on the black lava. I thought that the idea was cute until I heard that hawaiians don't approve this custom. We got back to Kona in a very slow traffic - apparently the road between airport and Kona is jammed during weekdays.

The night entertainment was a mix of different Broadway shows, advertised as "an unforgetable review". I forgot it almost instantly. The final part was pathetic: the entire crew gathered on the stage while the entertainers were singing a song thanking the tourists for being there. It reminded me of "We are the world, we are the children", but with a crowd of officers, cooks, waiters and room keepers. We had a very pleasant surprise (to be read excellent food) at the Alizar restaurant, which never seemed to be very busy. We decided that the quality of the food didn't really depend on how famous / busy the restaurant was.

• Diamond Head
• Driving around Oahu
• Pearl Harbor
• Volcanoes National Park
• Road to Hana
• Haleakala and Makena
• North Kohala
• North Kauai
• Waimea Canyon